Birmingham Hospital Trusts To Merge

Heart's been told two hospital trusts in Birmingham are going to merge to try and save money.

The University Hospitals Birmingham and Heart of England Foundation Trust say they can save around £3.5million just by working together more closely.

The outcome will be one Trust running the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals, the Chest Clinic and Solihull Community Services, as well as the Trusts' satellite services.

Bosses say that money can better help patients that need treatment and there will be no job losses because even working together the hospitals will be understaffed.

Since November 2015, Dame Julie Moore has been Chief Executive of both UHB and HEFT. She said: "We have agreed that the current arrangements are not sustainable. If we are to continue working together to maximise clinical benefits for patients, we need to implement a transformation that will deliver better access to better quality services for patients, supported by the most effective structure.

"Patients are not getting that at the moment despite the tireless work of staff across both trusts. We need our hospitals and services focussed on doing the best for patients, not protecting their organisational boundaries.

"The single Trust will pool the best talent and leadership from both organisations. We will make the best use of the finite resources available. By reviewing, rationalising and sharing resource across non-frontline services, we can then channel resource and investment into sustaining and developing our clinical services and sites."

Dame Julie added: "The work undertaken between the two Trusts has so far provided greater sustainability and certainty for patients, the public and the health economy in the long term. The single organisation will build on this."